The present invention relates to a foot-operated faucet and more particularly to a faucet fitted on an outlet of a general faucet, including a foot-compressed bulb which can be compressed by foot to create and transfer air pressure through a hose onto a membrane in a valve body mounted on a general faucet, whereby the membrane can be expanded to push a ball plug away, permitting the water to flow out. A rotary switch is disposed on the valve body and connected with a lever, whereby when the switch is rotated, the lever moves the ball plug away, permitting the water to continuously flow out.
U.S. Pat. No. 4052035 discloses a remotely controlled valve which includes a foot-operated control member capable of creating air pressure by way of compression and transferring the air pressure through a guide pipe to a pressure inlet for pushing away a piston. The piston then moves away a ball valve so a to permit the water to flow out. When the control member is released, the piston is restored to its original position by a spring and the ball valve suffers the water pressure to again block the water outlet.
Some drawbacks in the above arrangement are as follows:
1. When the piston contacts the surrounding wall too loosely, a leak will take place, while when the piston contacts the wall too closely, the piston will suffer greater frictional force when moved and thus cannot be easily operated.
2. The water outlet blocked by the ball valve is located on a lateral side and the ball valve blocks the outlet due to the water pressure, so that when the water pressure is lowered, due gravity, the ball valve will drop and fail to completely block the water outlet, making a part of water leak through the clearance between the ball valve and the outlet.
3. The remotely controlled valve can be only operated for temporary water discharging while when the water is to be discharged for a long time, the user must continuously step on the foot-operated member. Moreover, the structure of the remotely controlled valve is too complicated and thus cannot be easily assembled. Also, the foot-compressed structure of such valve is rough and the manufacturing cost thereof is high.